US men live six years less than women as gender gap in life expectancy widens

US men live shorter lives than US women as the gap in life expectancy worsens. The gender gap in 2021 was 5.8 years, the largest since 1996, according to a research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine.1

For more than a century, US women have outlived men because of lower cardiovascular and lung cancer deaths because of differences in smoking habits. The life expectancy gap between men and women increased from 4.8 years in 2010 to 5.8 years in 2021.

The gap increased 0.23 years from 2010 to 2019 and 0.70 years from 2019 to 2021. The absolute difference in age adjusted death rates between men and women …